Working Out While Pregnant

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One of the biggest concerns during pregnancy is how to stay healthy. Of course eating right is a huge factor but then there is also making sure that you are getting enough exercise. Pregnancy can drain even the most energized mom, but there are ways to boost your energy levels while working out and having fun at the same time. Here are a few tips from one of my favorite websites BabyCenter.

Dancing

Dancing is a fantastic and fun exercise during pregnancy! Not only do you get the thrill of moving your body to music you love, but it will keep you flexible while toning your muscles. You can get an aerobic workout from any fast-paced dance, or stretch and maintain muscle tone when you hold positions in ballet. For maximum benefit, dance for at least 20 minutes three times a week, whether it's in your living room or in class.
 

Low-impact aerobics

Aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and lungs and helps maintain muscle tone. As long as you choose exercises that are low-impact — meaning no jumping, high kicks, leaps, fast running, and so forth — and keep one foot on the ground at all times to minimize stress on your joints, you should be able to continue your routine throughout most of your pregnancy.

Prenatal Yoga

Prenatal yoga classes are more popular than ever. When paired with a cardiovascular exercise such as walking, yoga can be an ideal way to stay in shape during your pregnancy. This age-old practice keeps you limber, tones your muscles, and improves your balance and circulation, with little, if any, impact on your joints.

Stretching

Stretching will enhance your flexibility, prevent your muscles from tightening, and make you feel looser and more relaxed. Use the following stretches after a workout as a way to cool down, or just when you need to relax. Be sure to breathe deeply and regularly as you stretch.

Swimming

Swimming is great exercise because it uses both large muscle groups (arms and legs). Though low-impact, it provides good cardiovascular benefits and allows expectant women to feel weightless despite the extra pounds added by pregnancy. It also poses a very low risk of injury.

 

Walking

Walking is one of the best cardiovascular exercises for pregnant women because it keeps you fit without jarring your knees and ankles. It's also a safe activity to continue throughout all nine months of pregnancy and one of the easier ways to start exercising if you haven't previously been active.

Weight Training

Weight training strengthens and tones your muscles and helps you build stamina, which you'll need during labor and delivery. One good way to do that is to perform a set number of exercises (that number varies from woman to woman, depending on her fitness level) using resistance training machines such as the ones you find in athletic clubs. Try to avoid using free weights, as you may risk injury from losing your grip on a weight and dropping it.

Workouts At Home

Now that summer is coming everyone wants to be able to get into shape and to hopefully fit into the prebaby jeans again, but it is challenging when you can't get to (or afford) a gym membership or get someone to watch the baby while you work out for that matter! Well worry no more! With the help of personal trainer Victoria Gray we will learn not only how to workout from home but how to incorporate our babies into the workouts as well!

Here are a few workouts that Victoria suggest that you can use with or without free weights, but what better "free weight" can you have than lifting your baby!

*Disclaimer: The photos are of me and my son (and occasionally Bailey the Beagle so they are in no way beautifully lit, airbrushed prettiness. Additionally some might gain chuckles due to my Something About Mary hair and goofy one year old but the workouts are authentic and effective! I am still aching and pumped days later!

Here was our routine:

 Squat to overhead press with baby 3 sets of 20 reps

Lat pull downs two hands with band attached to door 3x20

 

 

Alternating side lunges with or without baby on hip 3 x 20

 

Alternating side lunges with rotational toe touch 3 x 20

Two leg bridges with baby on hips 2 x 10

While we managed to do the hour session with an overactive baby and an attention grabbing puppy the workouts were definitely affective. Victoria suggest that if you decide not to use the baby and do not have access to over the door bands to use free weights or even cans as a means of resistance to your workout. She also mentioned the following:

• When doing situps make sure to arch your back when going down to the floor to protect your back and spine.
• Make sure your butt is not sticking high in the air when doing push-ups and to be aware that you are pushing your body up as one unit, so no sequence of legs, stomach and shoulders. Just one connected push up of your entire body. 
• To make sure that your shoulders are dropped and you are in a diving position when doing the pull-downs. This will accurately work and tone your back muscles. 
• To keep in the back of your mind what it is that you are going after while you work out. While the repetitions might be tedious the only way you will achieve your goal is if you keep pushing yourself.

If you want to contact Victoria directly you can email her at victoria@vgrayfitness.com or go here to her Facebook for more questions or on baby fitness.


Enjoy!

WTF?! Men actually lose weight faster than women!

So as you know I have been on a diet and working on losing weight before my son's bday next month. My boyfriend and I started dieting the same day and for a week we have been eating the same thing ad doing the same general regiment yet he has already lost 10 pounds and I've only lost 6! Now six pounds is better than nothing but there have been days where I will even eat LESS than him, go for longer walks, run up and down stairs and so far he's still ahead. How is this possible?? 

So I looked it up and apparently men DO lose weight faster than women. As bogus as it is here are some of the logistics behind it:

1. Men have more muscle. This allows them to burn more calories, even when at rest.
2. Women are predisposed to store and retain fat. Women have higher levels of estrogen, a hormone that works works to keep the fat on a woman's body so it's easier for her to get pregnant. That means women have to work harder to lose weight at the same rate as men.
3. Men's bodies respond more quickly to exercise. Women's bodies, meanwhile, actually go into a sort of starvation mode, slowing the metabolism to hang onto more fat.
4. Women may have a lower tolerance for exercise. Women have smaller lung capacity than men, which can make women feel as though they are working harder than men even if the women are working at the same level. This can also make exercise feel harder in the heat or high humidity. 

I hate to say it girls, but they boys might have us on this one.